January 2009
Transforming government
The start of a new year brings the promise processed in just 15 days. As a result, a consid-
of new beginnings and new challenges. There is erable amount of staff time is freed up for work
no question that the global economic crisis is on activities that add value to the agency and
the most significant challenge for businesses for Minnesotans.
and governments at the start of 2009. The Beyond Kaizen events, which rapidly im-
State of Minnesota is no different. prove processes through the use of tools such
Lean is a proven tool to enhance the qual- as process mapping, standard work and 5S,
ity, efficiency and effectiveness of government sustaining Lean improvements requires a cul-
services. In Minnesota, nearly 40 Kaizen ture of continuous improvement. Government
events in 2008 have transformed government operations involve complex systems of infor-
processes, getting better results with less mation flows from citizens, public agencies and
spending and saving thousands of staff hours. private industries. It is often difficult to know
On average, the new process designed dur- all of the steps involved in providing a service
ing the Kaizen event reduces process cycle time when employees are only involved in one small
by 70 percent. For example, if an employee step. In a continuous improvement culture,
spent 50 days processing a program enroll- each employee is thinking about and making
ment application, a Kaizen event may improve
(Transforming government continues on page 2)
the process to the point that the application is
DHS reduces application lead time by 87%
Nearly 40,000 personal care attendants and other home health care providers will be receiving faster
service on their enrollment applications following a recent Kaizen event at the Department of Human
Services (DHS). Enrollment is necessary for providers to receive payments from insurance carriers.
DHS sought to reduce the turnaround time for applications to 14 days from the current 54 days and
reduce the average daily volume of applications in the queue to less than 1,000 from the current 4,000.
The Kaizen team developed a two-phase plan that, with full implementation, will significantly exceed
the original goals. The time to process the enrollment application will be reduced to an average of 7 days,
an 87% improvement. Also, the lead time on an application will be reduced to one day and the task time
will be reduced to less than 10 minutes— a 97% reduction. The value of staff time saved per application
will be $180.
One year of Enterprise Lean
This month marks one year of the
State of Minnesota’s Lean journey. Al-
though people were skeptical at first,
the news of the successful pilot projects
spread like wildfire and helped launch
Lean in 19 state agencies throughout
the year.
The improvements made with the
Lean tools have streamlined govern-
ment processes by reducing waste and
enhancing the value-laden activities.
The most significant results have been
achieved
through
Kaizen
events
and the
hard
work of
hundreds
of state
employ-
ees.
Transforming government (continued from the front page)
incremental changes to the process in Lean focuses on streamlining the value-added
which they are involved. Gradually, the work of employees and the elimination of
entire value stream is improving— saving wasteful activities such as waiting, multiple
staff time and state dollars. reviews and sign-offs, and rework. Lean is cre-
Even with the barrage of grim eco- ating opportunities for creative solutions to the
nomic news and belt-tightening by state challenges facing Minnesota in 2009 and be-
agencies, Lean is not about reducing staff. yond.
2009 Lean Government The E-Lean Update
Exchange Thank you for your interest and participation in improving the
Join federal, state and local government efficiency of Minnesota state government operations. If you
have further questions, comments or would like to set up a
practitioners for a Lean learning and net-
Lean improvement event, please contact Tom Baumann at
working opportunity. Meet other government
TomBaumann@state.mn.us .
administrators that are applying Lean to
This material can be given to you in a different format
eliminate waste, standardize workflow, re-
such as large print, Braille, or audio tape or disk by calling
duce backlogs and decrease process com-
651-201-2555. Costumers with a hearing or speech disability
plexity. The State of Iowa is hosting the
may call us through the Minnesota Relay Service
event June 9, 10 & 11. For more information, at 711 or 800-627-3529, or via email
visit http://Lean.iowa.gov . at admin.info@state.mn.us .
Visit www.lean.state.mn.us to learn more.